


La Découverte

by theglitterati



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: First Time, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 01:44:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6264655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theglitterati/pseuds/theglitterati
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I haven’t kissed anyone since high school. I’ve probably forgotten how to do it,” Marius said. “And I’ve never done any of the… other stuff, either.”</p><p>Courfeyrac considered this. “Well,” he said, “you could practice with me, if you wanted. The kissing, not the ‘other stuff.’”</p>
            </blockquote>





	La Découverte

Courfeyrac was in the kitchen, simultaneously doing the dishes and singing every part to “Seasons of Love” from  _ Rent _ , when he heard a key turn in the front door.

“Hey, you almost hit the high note that time,” Marius said a moment later, even though Courfeyrac had not even come close. He tossed his backpack down on one of the bar stools, then climbed onto the other.

“One day I’ll hit it and finally do Joanne justice,” Courfeyrac said. He popped a mug into the already overflowing dishrack and looked over his shoulder at Marius. “Did she come back today?”

Marius shook his head, and Courfeyrac turned back to the dishes. “No.”

“So, it’s been what, two months now?”

“Fifty-one days,” Marius answered, not needing to check the calendar.

“And you haven’t seen her since?”

“Nope.”

“And you’re still going to go back tomorrow?”

“Yup.”

“Of course you are,” Courfeyrac said, exasperated. 

The girl in question was someone Marius had had a One-Conversation Stand with in a coffee shop back in March. He had been flirting up a storm – his words, not Courfeyrac’s – when the girl’s father had suddenly interrupted and she had been whisked away quite brusquely, never to be seen again. All Marius knew about her was that she was blonde, went by Cosette (which, he later determined after combing through every social media profile of every Cosette in the world, was not her real name), and that he was utterly in love with her. Since their meeting, Marius had been frequenting the café daily, but he had yet to find his dream girl again.

Courfeyrac stuck one final fork into the pile of clean dishes with the precision of someone hoping their house of cards wouldn’t collapse, then pulled the plug. He headed for the living room couch, and Marius followed.

“I know I’ve asked you this, well, fifty times before, but do you honestly believe that you’re going to see her again?” Courfeyrac asked.

Marius flopped down on the couch beside him. “I have to. I have to believe that I’ll see her again, because if I can’t believe in that, then I can’t believe in love, or happiness, or anything in this world!”

Courfeyrac snorted; Marius could be so dramatic. “I hardly think that’s true.”

“Then we agree to disagree,” Marius said. “Look, I just want a second chance with her, preferably without her father being there. I know she liked me, too. I just want to make her happy! And I know I could, because she would make me the happiest man on Earth.”

Courfeyrac smiled. “You know normally, I would have called the police on you by now, but you’ve got to be the most harmless and most adorable stalker in the whole world.”

“Hey, I was patronizing that coffee shop long before she ever appeared,” Marius said.

“Yes,” Courfeyrac continued, “but for five minutes a day, not five hours.”

“I like the atmosphere for studying,” Marius mumbled. He sighed. “I do sound creepy, don’t I?”

“Just a tad,” Courfeyrac said, patting his arm.

He smiled feebly. “Do you think I’m a complete idiot?”

Courfeyrac couldn’t help but feel sympathetic. Seeing Marius sad wasn’t fun for anyone; he had the temperament of a golden retriever. He decided to ease off of him.

“No, I don’t think you’re an idiot. I find your lovesickness endearing, actually. All I’m saying is maybe cut back on going to the café a few times a week, before you get served with a restraining order from the baristas.” Marius still looked down. “Come on. Let’s not focus on your losses for the moment. Let’s talk about what you’re going to say to her when you finally do meet!”

To Courfeyrac’s surprise, Marius responded with a groan.

“What?! After all this waiting, surely you must be excited to see her again.”

“I am,” Marius said. “Of course I am. I’m just afraid that I’ll blow it and say something stupid. Last time, I didn’t know her, so I didn’t know to be nervous, or, you know, more nervous than I normally am trying to talk to girls. But this time, all the anticipation has made this seem like a huge deal in my mind.”

“You managed to talk to her before, so you’ll be able to do it again, once you get in the zone,” Courfeyrac said. “And if things work out, maybe you’ll actually get to do less talking and more kissing, if you know what I mean.” 

“Of course I know what you mean. You said it instead of implying it,” Marius huffed. “And that hardly makes me feel any better.”

“Why not!? You’ve kissed people before. You know how to do that.”

“I haven’t kissed anyone since high school. I’ve probably forgotten how to do it,” Marius said. “And I’ve never done any of the… other stuff, either.”

Courfeyrac considered this. “Well,” he said, “you could practice with me, if you wanted. The kissing, not the ‘other stuff.’”

Marius looked scandalized. “Are you… hitting on me?!” he asked.

“No, you scared little straight boy, I am not hitting on you. I’m just trying to be a good friend! You won’t listen to any of my advice, so I thought maybe I could help in a different way.”

“Oh,” Marius said. “I’m sorry.”

“Kiss and make up?” Courfeyrac winked.

Marius knotted his hands together and focused his eyes on them. “It would be weird, Courf.”

“Why would it be weird? Because I’m a guy?”

“What? No! I’ve—”

“—kissed a guy before, yeah, believe me, Marius, I know.” Marius had probably told the story ten times in the year they had known each other. It had happened during a game of Spin the Bottle; it was hardly a very riveting anecdote. “What would be weird about it, then?”

“You’re my friend,” Marius said. “Do you normally just go around kissing your friends?”

“Not all of my friends are as cute as you,” Courfeyrac countered. Marius’s eyes widened.

“Okay, okay, sorry,” Courfeyrac said. “I’m not going to pressure you into anything. It was just a suggestion.” He started to get up, but Marius grabbed his hand and pulled him back down onto the couch.

“I didn’t say no,” Marius said quietly. “Let’s, um. Let’s do it.”

“Wow, please don’t use that line on Cosette.”

“Are you gonna kiss me, or not?”

“No, I’m not,” Courfeyrac said stubbornly. “You are going to kiss me, because you offended me by saying it would be weird to—”

He was cut off by Marius pressing their lips together, his hands on either side of Courfeyrac’s face. The kiss was chaste; Marius kept his lips firmly closed, and Courfeyrac didn’t push him for anything more. They broke apart seconds later, Marius with his eyebrows up at his hairline and Courfeyrac looking shell-shocked.

They stared at each other for a moment, both of them too stunned to speak. Finally, Courfeyrac broke the silence.

“Who am I, your grandmother?” Courfeyrac asked, trying for a casual tone. “I thought we were going to make out!  _ Kiss _ me, Marius.”

“I was psyching myself up for it,” Marius said. “And also, my grandmother’s dead. Be nice.”

“Sorry,” Courfeyrac said, not sounding it at all. “Now, Monsieur Pontmercy, will you please stick your tongue down my throat?” This time, Marius obeyed. 

Kissing is like riding a bicycle; you might be a bit shaky during your first ride in years, but you never really forget. 

Marius parted Courfeyrac’s lips with his tongue. A bit overzealous, but Courfeyrac wasn’t complaining. It took them a few minutes to find their rhythm, Marius working at super speed and Courfeyrac trying to slow him down. He didn’t mind the fast pace, but he was in training mode, and he didn’t think Cosette would appreciate it. 

When they did find it, though, it was nice. Courfeyrac mostly kept his hands to himself at first, but he coaxed Marius’s off of his face and down to his waist. It was good practice, after all; no one kissed with their hands tied behind their back. When Marius’s hands started to wander absent-mindedly, it became clear that he was enjoying this as much as Courfeyrac was. Courfeyrac indulged himself a little then, moving closer to his friend on the couch and carefully placing a hand on his chest.

But then his finger slipped ( _ honestly _ ) and brushed against the hard bump of Marius’s nipple through his shirt, and Marius started and pulled away.

“Sorry,” Courfeyrac said. “I really didn’t intend to do that.”

“It’s okay!” Marius said quickly. “It just made me jump.”

“That was probably enough instruction for today anyways,” Courfeyrac said. “Though you hardly even needed it! That was some A plus kissing, bro.”

Marius perked up. “It was really okay?”

“Did you think it was bad?” Courfeyrac asked.

Marius shook his head. “No. I thought it was good.” 

“Well, so did I,” Courfeyrac said. “And now you’ve got another guy-kissing anecdote to tell at dinner parties,” he added with an eye roll.

***

The rest of their day passed without any more incidents of kissing. A small amount of tension had lingered between them for a while, but after an hour or two, they were back to normal. Courfeyrac went to the library for a few hours after dinner to get some work done, and came home around ten to find Marius asleep on the couch, the TV still playing an old episode of  _ Gilmore Girls _ .

“Hey,” Courfeyrac said, tapping him on the shoulder. “Wake up, sleepy. At least for long enough to get into bed.”

Marius whined and buried his face in the pillow. “Can’t I just sleep here?”

Courfeyrac laughed. Marius was almost six feet tall, and their couch was hardly four feet long. “You can, but you’re going to be sore tomorrow.”

Marius made a sound like  _ unghhh _ and pulled himself up, heading off to the bathroom to brush his teeth and change for bed. 

“You know,” Courfeyrac said through the door, “you wouldn’t be so tired if you didn’t get up so early to haunt the coffee shop and wait for your Princess Charming.” Marius muttered something unintelligible back, presumably due to the toothbrush in his mouth. Courfeyrac decided to drop it.

He was plugging in his phone, sitting with his feet dangling off the side of the bed, when Marius came in. 

“Should I sleep in my own bed tonight?” Marius asked.

Marius’s “bed” was actually a bare, ancient mattress on the floor of Courfeyrac’s room. When Marius had turned up on the doorstep of Courfeyrac’s one-bedroom apartment looking for a place to stay, their first task had been to find him something to sleep on that they could take home the same day. What they ended up with was a thrift store mattress with tags from the 1970s. While the “No Bed Bugs, Guaranteed!” sign on it had turned out to be true, it hadn’t been the most comforting thing to read. 

Marius had endured its lumpiness for a month while he and Courfeyrac got to know each other better. When the two became proper friends, Courfeyrac had taken pity on Marius and invited him to share his queen-sized bed. For the first few months, they slept as far from each other as the bed would allow. Now, Courfeyrac was lucky if he didn’t wake up with Marius drooling on his pillow.

Courfeyrac laughed, but he was sad to think that their kiss could drive Marius back to the floor. “Did I really freak you out that much earlier that you want to sleep on that thing?”

“No,” Marius said. “I was just making sure you were still okay with me sleeping in your bed.”

“It’s our bed, at this point,” Courfeyrac said, throwing back the covers and climbing in. “If you ever move out, we’ll saw it in half and you can keep your side.”

Marius just smiled, then shut out the light and joined Courfeyrac under the covers.

“I’m not tired anymore,” he said after a few minutes of them lying in the darkness.

“You were literally just sleeping on the couch,” Courfeyrac said.

“Yeah, well, that nap refreshed me,” Marius said, “and now I can’t fall asleep.”

“Dunno what you want me to do about that,” Courfeyrac muttered, though he actually wasn’t very tired, either.

He felt Marius roll over to face his side of the bed, so he turned, too, leaving their noses just a few inches apart.

He couldn’t read whether Marius had been aiming for it or not, but the second they came face to face, something like an electric current started flowing between them. When they had kissed earlier, Courfeyrac had felt that he had the situation under control, but now, he felt overcome with a desire to throw himself at his roommate, to finish what they had started. He was trying wildly to come up with a way to convince Marius, his token straight friend, to let him touch him again when Marius spoke up himself.

“Do you think it would it be bad if we—”

Courfeyrac didn’t even let him finish the sentence before smashing their mouths together.

Earlier, he had been happy to keep the tempo slow. But this was different; this wasn’t just practice anymore. So he eagerly took up a faster pace. He stopped treating Marius like a pupil and instead kissed him like a lover. He gave Marius everything he had, no longer afraid to scare him off, biting his lip and pulling his hair. And Marius responded in kind, kissing more messily than he had earlier, but with more of himself in it, his hands flying all over Courfeyrac’s body.

“What were you gonna say?” Courfeyrac asked, when they pulled apart for air, panting.

Marius giggled, a high-pitched titter. “I was going to say ‘do you think it would it be bad if we kissed again?’ Clearly I got my answer.”

“And you’re okay with this? You’re into this?” Courfeyrac asked.

“Please keep going,” was all Marius said in reply. Courfeyrac couldn’t argue with that.

He rolled on top of him, careful not to press their hips together until he knew what Marius expected out of this encounter. Courfeyrac’s hands slid up Marius’s sides and down over his arms. Marius was lean, but he was more toned than he looked from far away. Courfeyrac gave up on making out with him and instead pressed wet kisses to Marius’s mouth intermittently, preferring to pull back and see the effect that his lips and hands were having on his friend. Seeing Marius’s face contort with pleasure was like seeing it for the first time, and Courfeyrac wanted to memorize every second of it.

Once he was sure that Marius wasn’t going to back out of this, call it a mistake and go to sleep, Courfeyrac moved his fingers back to toy with one of Marius’s nipples through his shirt. He was rewarded with a gasp from Marius, and this time, he didn’t pull away.

“So you do like that, then?” Courfeyrac asked, as smugly as he could manage while pretending that he didn’t feel like his bones had turned to jelly from all this. He pulled his hand back, teasing.

Marius nodded fanatically, taking the hand Courfeyrac had moved away and dragging it back to his chest. Courfeyrac returned to his game, this time pinching both nipples at once, making Marius cry out. They lost their shirts when Marius started pulling at the hem of Courfeyrac’s – Courfeyrac had them both off in seconds, leaving the two of them in just their pajama pants.

They continued like that for almost half an hour, until they had touched every available inch of the other’s bare skin. Courfeyrac would have been content to do this all night, if not for the fact that he had grown unbearably hard. He still wasn’t sure what Marius wanted, or if Marius himself even knew. He decide to make a move in the mildest way he could think of.

He lowered himself down and moved one knee between Marius’s legs. He was pleased, if unsurprised, to find that Marius was just as hard as he was. Marius moaned loudly – and,  _ god _ , if that wasn’t the hottest thing Courfeyrac had ever heard – and began to rut against him. Courfeyrac gave him a minute to get used to the feeling, then replaced his knee with his hand, palming Marius through his pajamas at first, then curving his hand around the outline his cock. Marius kissed him filthily, his tongue sliding all over Courfeyrac’s lips.

Marius enjoyed what he got without attempting to return the favour, but Courfeyrac wasn’t bothered; he had something else in mind. He tried to think of a smooth way to ask for what he wanted, but in the end he decided to just spit it out.

“Hey,” he said quietly, hiding his face in Marius’s collarbone. “Would you let me give you a blowjob?”

Marius didn’t answer. Courfeyrac looked up to see him staring back at him, his eyes wide open.

“It’s totally okay if you don’t want to,” Courfeyrac backpedaled.

“No, I just—” Marius started. “I mean, you really want to do that? To me?”

“Uh,  _ yes _ ,” Courfeyrac said.

“I just don’t understand why?” Marius said after a moment, his voice turning it into a question.

Courfeyrac gave a short, sharp  _ hah _ . “God, you are really unaware of how hot you are, aren’t you?”

Marius didn’t answer, but instead hid his face in his hands. In the moonlight coming in the window, Courfeyrac could see his cheeks turn pink through his fingers.

“So are you going to let me do it, or not?” Courfeyrac asked.

Marius was smiling when he peeled his hands away from his face. “Yeah, okay,” he said, his voice as sweet as honey.

Courfeyrac grinned and slid down the bed, tugging at Marius’s pants as he went. He was pretty sure that he had never given anyone their first blowjob before; this was going to be fun.

He pulled Marius’s pajamas down just enough to free his cock, which Courfeyrac found was just as pretty as the rest of him. He stroked him a few times just to warm him up, but given that he had never been touched like that by someone else before, it was enough to have Marius bucking his hips up. Courfeyrac licked a few long stripes up his cock, and then took Marius into his mouth.

Marius let out a moan that was cut off abruptly as Courfeyrac took him in; Courfeyrac looked up and found that Marius had stuffed his fist enough to his mouth to keep from making too much noise. Courfeyrac worked him expertly, alternating between pulling off almost completely and then taking him all the way back in again. Marius tentatively worked his fingers into Courfeyrac’s hair. Courfeyrac nodded and moaned with Marius still in his mouth to tell him that it was okay, and Marius dug his fingers in deeper and pulled gently on his curls. Courfeyrac was glad that, in this position, he could grind down against the mattress to give himself some relief, because Marius was apparently going to be the actual death of him.

Little time passed before Marius started tapping him on the shoulder. “I’m probably going to, um, finish soon,” he said breathily. “How should I let you know when to stop?”

Courfeyrac waved him off with his hand to show that that wouldn’t be necessary.

“What does that mean?” Marius asked.

Courfeyrac rolled his eyes and pulled off of Marius’s cock. “It means that I’m fine with swallowing, and that you don’t need to warn me, okay?” He didn’t wait for an answer before getting back to work.

Soon after, Marius started moving his hips faster and moaning loudly, apparently having given up on trying to be quiet. Courfeyrac was ready for him when he came, swallowing him down while Marius practically ripped out his hair. He sucked him until his orgasm was finished, then pulled Marius’s pajamas back up and collapsed on his pillow beside him, both of them panting heavily.

Courfeyrac wasn’t sure what he had expected next, but it certainly wasn’t for Marius to start touching his own still-throbbing cock through his pants.

“You don’t have to do that,” Courfeyrac said, sitting up. He could easily just ignore it, or go jerk off in the bathroom if he had to. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“I want to,” Marius said. “Please. You made me feel so good. I want to do the same for you. I might be bad at it, but I really want to try.”

Courfeyrac took a deep breath, and laid back against the pillows. “Okay,” he said, a bit shaky. “Okay, go ahead.”

He closed his eyes and let Marius work. Marius slid his pants down the same way Courfeyrac had his, and took his cock into his hand. Marius had obviously done this to himself before, so it didn’t take him long to adapt to doing it to someone else, once he found the right angle. Courfeyrac let himself go completely under his touch, moving his hips in circles and finally letting himself make some noise. He opened his eyes and slid his thumb across Marius’s cheekbone, then his lips, which drew out a smile and a low hum from him.

Courfeyrac felt himself reaching his climax almost embarrassingly fast, but the exhilaration of doing this with the man he had been innocently sharing a bed with for months was too much to handle.

“I’m going to come really soon,” he said just before. “Just so you know.” Marius just nodded and continued, and then Courfeyrac was spending himself over Marius’s hand and down onto his stomach. He had to bite down on his tongue to keep himself from calling out Marius’s name as he did.

When it was over, Marius just sat there, looking unsure what to do and holding his hand at an awkward angle.

“You can go wash your hands if you want,” Courfeyrac said. “I’m not going to be mad.” Marius gave a strange little chuckle and headed for the bathroom.

Courfeyrac went to the dresser and grabbed an old pair of boxers to clean himself up with. He was clothed and back under the covers by the time Marius got back. Courfeyrac was nervous that Marius might not want to come back into bed with him, but he just climbed back in without a word, settling closer to Courfeyrac than usual and not even bothering to put his shirt back on.

“So that was new,” Marius said after a moment of very awkward silence.

“Very, very new and different,” Courfeyrac replied.

“I’ve got a great new story now to replace my Spin the Bottle one,” Marius said lightly.

Courfeyrac burst out laughing, and Marius joined him. In their fit of laughter, they ended up moving closer to each other, close enough to touch. Courfeyrac had seen many new parts of Marius tonight, but what he was perhaps the most struck by of all was how beautiful and open Marius’s smile was when he laughed, and his realization that it was not often that he saw Marius this happy.

“I don’t know if you should go spreading that story,” Courfeyrac said, rolling onto his side, so that he was facing Marius. “The heteros might take your membership card away.”

Marius just laughed, ignoring the implicit question there, and slipped an arm around Courfeyrac’s shoulders.

“I’m sleepy again,” he said.

“Me too.” Courfeyrac cautiously moved closer and laid his head on Marius’s chest. Marius wrapped both arms around him tightly.

“Are you going to set an alarm?” Courfeyrac asked, as he shut his eyes.

“Nah.”

“But you’ll miss out on going to the coffee shop in the morning if you sleep in.”

Marius gently kissed the top of Courfeyrac’s head before replying. “I’ll go later on in the day,” he said. “Maybe.”


End file.
